Although it is seems to be popular in some quarters to regard the football and hurling leagues as secondary competitions and to dismiss failure in these leagues as a minor matter, this can also be seen as a matter of "whistling past the graveyard".
Teams which trot out the old cliche about "the championship is our main aim" are deluding themselves and often fail to get past the first round, of that competition.
The National League is a much more realistic aim for many teams. County boards are also anxious to do well in the league as a way of getting a bigger share of the funds which accrue to teams which reach the later stages of the competition.
Certainly there was no lack of effort in the two semi-finals in the National Football League this season. Although the two matches were as alike as chalk and cheese insofar as the quality of football played, there was no doubting the commitment of the sides and the bitter disappointment of the losers.
It can, therefore, be taken for granted that Offaly and Derry will be pulling out all the stops on Sunday at Croke Park and, given a reasonably dry playing surface a close encounter can be guaranteed.
The Offaly manager, Tommy Lyons, has already admitted that his side will have to improve on their performance against Donegal in the semi-final but he says the players have worked hard and are determined to take the title. "Derry are a very strong side right through from the goal to the left corner forward but I think we can match them," he says.
Derry too have indicated their deep commitment to the occasion and would regard defeat at this stage as a setback to their advancement, particularly since they meet their rivals Monaghan in the first round of the Ulster championship next month.
On the hurling front, several of the country's best-known players will be in action today and tomorrow in the Interbanks hurling championship in Tramore. Among those in action will be Nicholas English of Tipperary, Sean Og O hAilpin of Cork, Kieran Kingston of Cork, Brian Lohan of Clare, Adrian Ronan of Kilkenny, Noel Sheehy of Tipperary, Kevin Broderick of Galway Michael Duignan of Offaly, Brian Donnelly of Antrim and many others.
The semi-finals of the competition will be played today with AIB South meeting Bank of Ireland (2.30) and AIB v Ulster/Northern/ NIB (4.0) and the winners of those two matches clashing in the final on Saturday at 1.30.
The All-Ireland senior colleges football final between St Colman's of Newry and Colaiste Eoin from Stillorgan in Dublin which is scheduled for Croke Park on May 3rd is to be televised by Telefis na Gaeilge. In all an hour has been set aside by TnaG for delayed transmission of the match at 7.30 that evening. The match has already generated quite a bit of attention and, with the coveted Hogan Cup at stake again supporters of both colleges and many others will be looking forward to the broadcast. It has also been announced that TnaG will screen delayed highlight from the All-Ireland senior colleges hurling final between St Flannan's from Ennis and St Raphael's from Loughrea on May 5th at 8.30.
A spokesman for TnaG, Padraig O Ciardha says that the station is now firmly established as a television platform for colleges sport."Spor tiris, our Thursday night magazine programme has been running a series of profiles of famous GAA colleges and our Cluiche Aneas series on Tuesday nights has been tracking this year's colleges football and hurling series and we are getting a very positive reaction from the general public," he says.
